How ‘The Institute’ season 2 goes off book, expands Stephen King story

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Institute season 1.

The Institute, the series adaptation of Stephen King’s 2019 book, gave the Amazon-owned MGM+ its biggest premiere ever. So the linear channel and streaming service rewarded the thriller with a season 2 renewal, announced last week. That means executive producers Jack Bender, who also directs, and Benjamin Cavell, who also writes, are delving into uncharted territory.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly following the season 2 reveal, Bender confirms the show is now going completely off book. Season 1 exhausted the events of King’s novel, even reworking material from its epilogue into the main action of the story, so now the team will chart a new path for these characters, which will involve expanding on elements from the novel.

“Ben Cavell and I, Stephen [King], and Michael Wright, the head of the studio, all hoped there’d be more seasons because we felt that if we established these characters and the fact that they’re all over the world, all that stuff that’s mentioned, there’s no reason why not,” he tells EW. “There are a few more seasons in this show and in this idea.”

Season 1 began by introducing Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman), a young boy from Minneapolis with prodigy-level intellect and mild telekinetic abilities, who is taken from his home and brought to “the Institute,” one of multiple mysterious facilities all around the world that house kidnapped children with various levels of psychic abilities (“TKs” for telekinetics, “TPs” for telepaths).

The true purpose of these Institutes is to pinpoint and develop precogs, psychics with the ability to foresee the future. The organization then uses those precogs — and Luke is one of them — to prevent global catastrophes at the expense of children’s lives.

The season 1 finale sees the destruction of this one Institute after kids from multiple Institutes channel their combined power through a telepathic link. Luke then sets off into the unknown with Kalisha (Simone Miller), Nicky (Fionn Laird), and George (Arlen So) — three other psychic kids trapped at the facility — as well as Tim (Ben Barnes) and Wendy (Hannah Galway), the two police officers who came to their aid.

Bender and Cavell have been “kicking around ideas” for what comes next and already have a “sketch” of the season 2 story, Bender reveals. A writers’ room will then formally assemble in “a week or two” to sit down and flesh out the next phase of the show.

“They’re still on the run in our heads in season 2,” Bender teases, adding, “I think there’s gonna be a lot of opportunity to expand.”

One obvious area of expansion? “There are Institutes all over the world, and the struggle to take down the demonic aspect is going to continue,” Bender says. “At the same time, it’s taking down the dragon. It’s fighting the dragons in Game of Thrones. Where are the dragons in the world? I think that the other Institutes will play into it, and who’s controlling it all will play into it.”

In season 1, actor Jeff Fahey was revealed as the Lisping Man, the top boss pulling the strings of Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker) with each phone call. In the finale, he orders a “burn team” to scrub the site of the destroyed Institute and then goes outside to play hide-and-seek with his grandkids as if nothing ever happened.

“Our young army of survivors will continue to survive in their own way,” Bender adds. “Luke isn’t gonna be left alone, taking courses at M.I.T. If he tries, I have a feeling there’s gonna be some disruption there.”

Sigsby will also play a role in the continuing story, even if she screwed up royally in the first season. Bender calls Parker’s performance “very nuanced and seductive in terms of how smart she is,” which he hopes will continue in season 2. “We left Sigsby with her flash drive with the movie on it,” he says. “So there’s information that can get out that would be very, very dangerous.”

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As he ponders how the story will evolve after season 1, Bender keeps returning to themes that continue to interest King in his novels: “Kids and adults who are challenged, needless to say, by societal issues, economical issues, or mental issues, which play into all the things that he hates about our government now,” Bender says of the horror author.

“He loves the pound dogs in life, you know?” Bender explains. “He writes about the kids, the pound dogs, that end up saving the world. The nature of a second season, we’re going to talk about our precogs. We’re gonna do a bunch of things we haven’t really seen yet, but we’ve heard about. We’re gonna definitely continue threading that needle of what these powers are, how they’re used, and how they’re built up and multiplied.”

All of this is done with King’s blessing. The writer doesn’t always agree to an executive producer title when it comes to adaptations of his books, unless he really believes in them. And he does believe in The Institute.

“Stephen wrote to me today and said, ‘It’s gonna be better!'” Bender reveals in his interview with EW. “He adores season 1, but he’s got high hopes for season 2.”

Until then, all eight episodes of The Institute‘s first season are available to stream on MGM+.